When a personal computer is turned on, a basic input-output system (BIOS) that is stored in non-volatile solid state memory of the computer is invoked to begin what is known as a “boot” process, in which various initialization chores are undertaken. Among the most important of these chores is the copying of an operating system from disk storage of the computer over into typically a volatile solid state memory of the computer, for execution of the operating system by the processor of the computer when the computer is being used. When the computer is turned off or when it is “re-booted”, the operating system is flushed from the memory. By executing the operating system from the relatively fast memory instead of from the disk, computer operations are accelerated.
Among the chores of booting is to prompt the user to enter a password, so that use of the computer is enabled. This password is sometimes referred to as the “power-on password. Without proper password entry, the use of the operating system is denied. Additionally, the hard disk drive (HDD) of the computer may have its own password, so that even when the power-on password is properly entered, access to the HDD is denied unless the HDD password is also input.
Recognizing that users can forget their passwords, a limited operating system, referred to herein as a “secure operating system” (also sometimes referred to in the art as a “service O.S.”), may be provided to the user to undertake limited, “safe” tasks. That is, a “secure” operating system is configured to accomplish only predetermined limited tasks, and because of this the secure O.S. cannot feasibly be corrupted or infected with malicious code. Also, this O.S. is not suitable for other “productive” uses of the computer, so the end user cannot accomplish other work using it. One of these limited tasks may be to issue a challenge question to the user, which, if correctly answered, enables the user to reset the power-on password and, hence, to boot the standard O.S. The secure O.S., like the standard O.S., must be booted.
The present invention recognizes that a secure O.S. can be booted from an optical disk in an optical disk drive or from a remote storage over a network, but that the most convenient way to boot the secure O.S. would be from the HDD, for both speed and minimal user action. As critically understood herein, however, the HDD, which may itself be protected by a password, may not grant access to the secure O.S. unless the HDD password is remembered. On the other hand, recall that one purpose of a secure O.S. is to allow limited computer functionality when a user forgets a password, including that of the HDD. With the above conundrum in mind, the present invention is provided.